The present invention relates to a cleaning tool for an optical connector, which cleans the connecting end face of a ferrule that forms an optical connector.
In an optical connector for an optical fiber which is used in the field of optical communications or photometry, if the connecting end face of the optical fiber is soiled or a substance such as fats and oils or dust attaches to it, the insertion loss of the optical fiber is increased to decrease the reflection attenuation amount, so an optical signal cannot be transmitted correctly. For this reason, each time the connector is attached or detached, the connecting end face of a ferrule fixed to an optical connecting plug that forms the optical connector must be cleaned, so the soil or attaching substance is removed reliably.
Conventionally, when the connecting end face of a ferrule is to be cleaned, the operator cleans it by wiping it with a cleaning tool, e.g., a cleaning sheet or paper impregnated with ethyl alcohol, or spraying nitrogen gas to it. In the wiping cleaning operation using a cleaning sheet or paper impregnated with alcohol, the amount of alcohol and the wiping degree differ depending on the operator who performs cleaning, and the cleaning effect tends to vary. Since alcohol tends to catch fire easily, it must be handled and stored with sufficient care.
Recently, a dry cleaning tool has been proposed to replace the wet cleaning tool described above. According to the dry cleaning tool, ultra-thin fiber formed into a tape-like shape is urged and rubbed against the engaging end face or connecting end face of the ferrule, thereby removing an attaching substance, e.g., a soil, dust, or oils and fats, attaching to the optical fiber end face which opposes the connecting end face of the ferrule.
With the conventional optical connector cleaning tool described above, if the connecting end face of the ferrule is polished obliquely or a stepped connecting end face is polished, it cannot be cleaned stably. More specifically, the end face of an optical connector is sometimes polished obliquely with an inclination of about 8xc2x0 to 10xc2x0 in order to suppress reflection by the fiber end face. In this case, if a conventional cleaning tool for an optical connector is used, the end face of a ferrule that fixes the fiber undesirably may not come into contact with the cleaning fiber. Also, a corner at the distal end face of the connecting end face of the ferrule may be caught by the cleaning fiber, so the fiber may be cut off or is pulled by it, and stable cleaning cannot be performed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning tool for an optical connector, which can clean the obliquely polished connecting end face of a ferrule reliably and stably.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a cleaning tool for an optical connector, which cleans a connecting end face of a ferrule fixed to an optical connecting plug, comprising a cleaning sheet member which cleans the connecting end face of the ferrule, and a plug holding member which holds the optical connecting plug such that the connecting end face of the ferrule comes into contact with the cleaning sheet member to be parallel thereto.